Business Development Trainee Program Week 2 2017

Our second week of training was the most exciting week we have had yet. The trainees went to different sales offices to see how business is done with different clients around the country. I went to the office in Bentonville Arkansas, the home of the Walmart headquarters. I had a phenomenal time learning more about how we do business with our largest client – it was especially exciting to hear from trainees from the previous year and their experiences with the program. They all spoke very highly on how seriously our company respects meritocracy. I have never had an experience in a company where hard work is rewarded regardless of tenure.

In addition to vising a regional sales office we also received sales training to give us an idea of how to work with our client buyers. It was very interesting to learn more of the ‘science’ behind the soft skills that I had learned in school. To be honest I felt like I was on the ball with this topic; relating to people and working with them is second nature to me. However, the training we went through did a great job at reinforcing many of the concepts that I had learned in school and at previous internships. My favorite part of this past week was doing a shopper marketing case study in a local store next to the Aon Center.

Our task was to explore a Mariano’s store and recommend any changes to our current in store shopper tactics. Shopper marketing is one of my favorite topics to discuss because it deals with winning shoppers at the shelf in the store – there are an incredible amount of tactics that our company can employ that will positively affect how shoppers will interact with our products. Ultimately, we presented our findings to our sales counterparts leading our training for the day to discuss what we believed we could improve. To my surprise, they were eager to explore our findings and see if our suggestions would be viable business practices.

Aside from working and learning more about the sales roles we would be in after we move to our regional sales offices we also explored Chicago. The 4th of July atmosphere was perfect for hanging out downtown. I went to the Field Museum, the Shed Aquarium, and Wrigley Field for a Cubs game – All in one day! My training experience in Chicago has been phenomenal so far, and I am even more excited for what our last week of training has in store for us.